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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Sundance Institute, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, invites YOU, the storytellers from around the globe, to be a part of our first-ever Short Film Challenge.

The Challenge
Create a unique, compelling, and personal Short Film that explores an empowering person or an optimistic story about individuals and communities who are overcoming poverty and hunger, combatting disease, or improving health.Your Short Film can be narrative fiction or documentary, imaginative, unorthodox, daring or simple — the style and structure are completely up to you but you must touch on economic inequalities.The Goal
Let’s use the power of independent film and collective creativity to inspire a global conversation around innovative solutions that real people are using to conquer these challenges.

The Reward
FIVE winning Short Films will premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and those FIVE winning filmmakers will each receive a $10,000 prize and an all-expenses paid trip to attend the 2015 Sundance Film Festival as the Special Guest of Sundance Institute and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Together we endeavor to illuminate the belief that all lives are connected and the only thing that separates us is the lottery of where we are born. Our dream, through the unlimited power of global storytelling, is to provoke human empathy and open the world’s consciousness to the idea that somewhere, out there, there is another version of you. Someone who struggles for a healthy and productive life because they live in poverty most of us can’t imagine. You can also look at the flipside and explore Another You who has unimaginable resources and enjoys a life where all of their needs and wants are provided easily.

We seek hope, and we seek it together.

Not a filmmaker, but still want to get involved? Do you have a great Story to tell that celebrates individuals or communities overcoming poverty and hunger? Submit your Story now (for example, it can be a subject, a place, an event or a concept). We will be awarding FIVE Story winners $1,000 each for inventive and interesting submissions and one of those winning Stories will be brought to life by a renowned Sundance Institute filmmaker. If your Story is selected to be produced, you will attend the premiere of this short at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.